Gov. Rick Perry issued a fresh defense Sunday against allegations that he illegally tried to cripple a county watchdog office as the chief prosecutor rebuffed Republican barbs that the case is a partisan stunt.

Perry defended the funding cuts last year to Travis County’s district attorney, saying he’d lost confidence in the district attorney when she refused his calls to resign after a drunken-driving arrest. Perry, a Republican, said if he had to do it again, he would “make exactly the same decision.”

“Across the board, you’re seeing people weigh in and reflecting that this is way outside the norm,” Perry said on Fox News Sunday. He cast the charges as legal overreach based on “political differences” that should be settled at the ballot box, not in a courtroom.

But Michael McCrum, the special prosecutor, branded as “ridiculous” complaints by Perry allies that politics played a part in the felony charges. “While that may be may be good rhetoric ... there’s absolutely no basis for it,” he told his hometown newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News.

Perry’s veto of $7.5 million in state money to the county’s Public Integrity Unit after its Democratic boss, Rosemary Lehmberg, vowed to remain in office led to the grand jury indictments Friday. He was charged with abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant.

Perry on Saturday decried the charges as a “farce.” He stepped up that offensive a day later, seeking to rally backers and build up public opinion on his behalf. Among his efforts:

He took to Fox News, a favorite of conservatives, and said the indictment was part of a larger problem of government agencies acting outside the law. He cited the fallout over IRS scrutiny of political groups and National Security Agency surveillance.

Perry said those show “extraordinary concern in this country about the rule of law not being followed and too many things being decided in arenas that shouldn’t be decided from the standpoint of a government that’s out of control.”

He said he “stood up for the rule of law” and did “what every governor has done for decades,” deciding the best use of state money.

On social media, Perry’s personal and campaign Twitter accounts were used to bash the charges and play up tributes from others who said he’s been targeted by critics unable to defeat him in elections.

He noted that Democrat David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said the accusations seem sketchy. And Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax the charges were a “dangerous” pattern of courts playing politics.

The governor’s office sent reporters a release dubbed “in case you missed it” that included a video link of his TV appearance, supportive statements from Republicans and Democrats, and news reports questioning the charges. Among the headlines from a business-centric outlet: “Even liberals think the indictment of Rick Perry looks weak.”

That same missive from his office promoted Perry’s op-ed piece Sunday in Politico Magazine, a widely read Washington-based news organization. In it, Perry says the U.S. must do more to confront terrorists in Syria and Iraq.

Delving into international affairs is another sign that Perry still is considering a run for president after his campaign collapsed last time.

On Fox, he said he’s been busy across the country helping Republicans in elections this fall. “Between now and November 4 is what I’m focused on,” he said, adding: “2016 will take care of itself.”

McCrum, a veteran attorney who took on the case at the behest of a Republican judge, rejected Perry’s critique that he was a victim of an overzealous prosecution.

He declined to tell the Wall Street Journal his party affiliation but said: “Any suggestion that this prosecution is politically motivated is ridiculous. Anyone who knows me knows I look at the evidence and the facts.”

Meanwhile, some Democrats said Perry appears to be trying to deflect blame. They said Republicans have long sought to shake up the Public Integrity Unit, which investigates state and federal officials for wrongdoing. If the DA had resigned as Perry wanted, he would have named her successor.